TopWare Tools/TOOLS.iso/tools/top1325/graffix.txt

Text File | 1994-02-23 | 11.6 KB | 268 lines

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        █▄▄▄█  █  ▀▄  █   █  █      █      █  ▄▀     ▀▄ (TM)
        FOR WINDOWS AND DOS  ▀      ▀ SHAREWARE EDITION

      Copyright 1994 ANDROMEDA SOFTWARE.  All rights reserved.

This is the Shareware Edition of GRAFFIX 3.2, a screen-capture
system that includes programs for both Microsoft Windows and DOS.
The executable program files are DGFX.EXE for DOS applications,
and WGFX.EXE for Windows applications.

The DOS program can be run alone for full-screen text and gra-
phics screen captures from within DOS applications running in
DOS or Windows, while the Windows program can be run alone for
full-screen or single-window captures from within Windows appli-
cations.  DGFX.EXE and WGFX.EXE can also run simultaneously on
the same computer for the ultimate flexibility in screen capture
from within both Windows and DOS applications running in Windows.
For simplicity, the explanations that follow focus first on the
Windows version of GRAFFIX, then on the DOS version.


GRAFFIX for Windows

GRAFFIX is a clipboard viewer that can save all or part of the
image on the clipboard to a graphics file in BMP, GIF, or PCX
format.  In Windows, the entire screen can be captured to the
clipboard at any time by pressing the PrtSc key (Shift-PrtSc on
84-key keyboards), or just the currently active window by press-
ing Alt-PrtSc.  GRAFFIX does not need to be running in order to
do this.  GRAFFIX can then be opened to save the entire clip-
board, or the image can be cropped by using the mouse to frame
a rectangle of any size within the window before saving to disk.
To save, choose the desired format from the File menu.  A dialog
box will list the files of the selected format in the current
directory.  You may select one of the files listed or type a new
file name in the edit box.  To change to another drive or direc-
tory, highlight that item in the list box and click OK.

When minimized to an icon or hidden by another window, GRAFFIX is
still active in "popup" mode, which means it will pop up onto the
screen or become visible whenever an image is placed on the clip-
board.  You can then save the entire image or any rectangular
portion.  To return to the application that was interrupted,
simply click on that application's title bar or minimize GRAFFIX
back to an icon.  You can turn popup mode off by clicking on the
"popup" item in the Options menu, which will remove the checkmark
next to this menu item.

In popup mode, GRAFFIX will pop up when you press the PrtSc key
OR when another application places a bitmap on the clipboard
that is compatible with GRAFFIX.  The compatible formats are
DDB (Device-Dependent Bitmap) and DIB (Device-Independent Bitmap),
the two most commonly-used bitmap formats.  If you attempt to
save a clipboard bitmap whose format is not one of these two,
GRAFFIX will respond with a dialog box that says "No bitmap
exists on the clipboard."


Cropping the Clipboard Image

The GRAFFIX display window can scroll the clipboard image hor-
zontally and vertically by means of the scroll bars.  To mark a
rectangular area for cropping, move the cursor to one of the top
corners of the desired rectangle, depress the left mouse button,
move the cursor to the diagonally opposite corner and release the
button.  Repeat this process to erase the rectangle and draw a
new one.  The width and height of the rectangle in pixel units
will be displayed in the title bar, as will the x,y coordinates
of the upper-left (UL) and lower-right (LR) corners of the rec-
tangle.  The origin of these coordinates is the upper-left corner
of the window display area.

To save the cropped image, select the desired format from the
File menu.  To erase the rectangle, press Esc or position the
cursor anywhere on the image and click and release the left mouse
button.


File Menu Item: Save as BMP

Select this menu item to save the contents of the clipboard to an
uncompressed Windows Bitmap File with the filename extension BMP.
16-color, 256-color, and 24-bit true-color modes are supported.


File Menu Item: Save as GIF

Select this menu item to save the contents of the clipboard to a
CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format file with the filename ex-
tension GIF.  This format utilizes LZW compression, and supports
16 and 256-color modes.  GIF does not support 24-bit color modes.


File Menu Item: Save as PCX

Select this menu item to save the contents of the clipboard to
a PC Paintbrush file with the filename extension PCX.  16-color,
256-color, and 24-bit true-color modes are supported.


File Menu Item: Open BMP

Select this item from the File menu to open a BMP file and place
it on the clipboard.  The image can now be saved in any of the
three available formats, or cropped and then saved.


Main Menu Item: Options
Three options are available:

Clear clipboard.
  Select this menu item to empty the clipboard.

Popup mode.
  This is the default mode of GRAFFIX.  When minimized to an
  icon or hidden by another window, GRAFFIX will pop up onto
  the screen whenever the clipboard receives a new bitmap image.
  Select this menu item to turn popup mode off or back on again.
  To return to the application that was interrupted, click on
  that application's title bar or minimize GRAFFIX back to an
  icon.

Client rectangle.
  Select this menu item to draw, without using the mouse, a
  rectangle that contains the entire client area of the GRAFFIX
  window.  When the image is saved, the window borders and scroll
  bars will not be included in the image.  To erase the rectan-
  gle, press Esc or click and release the left mouse button.


Help Menu

Online Help is available to explain the features of GRAFFIX.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

GRAFFIX for DOS is a memory-resident utility that captures gra-
phics and text-mode screens directly to disk files.  It can be
activated from within a running DOS application, such as a video
game, by pressing the "hot key" combination Ctrl-Alt-Space.
Graphics screens can be saved as either GIF or PCX files, and
text screens as ASCII files.  GRAFFIX supports all EGA, VGA, and
SVGA gray-scale and color graphics modes, including 16 and 256-
color, 24-bit color (VESA modes), monochrome EGA and VGA modes,
and text modes up to 132 columns by 60 rows.  To minimize memory
requirements of this TSR, the old CGA and Hercules graphics modes
are not supported.  SVGA modes are supported for adapters whose
BIOS is VESA-compliant, which includes most SVGA adapters on the
market.


USING GRAFFIX for DOS

Super-VGA modes are supported for video cards that have the
VESA BIOS extension.  GRAFFIX looks for this extension when you
make it resident, and prints a message on the screen indicating
whether or not the VESA BIOS extension was found.  Some SVGA
cards, such as the Video Seven WIN.VGA, require that you run
a utility program that installs the VESA BIOS extension in RAM
before an application can make calls to the BIOS extension.

In the case of the Video Seven card, this utility is named
V7VESA.COM.  Putting V7VESA on a separate line in your AUTO-
EXEC.BAT file will automatically load this driver every time
you turn on your computer.

In the absence of the VESA BIOS extension on SVGA cards, GRAFFIX
supports the standard VGA modes, but will terminate and return to
the application when it encounters a mode it does not recognize.

When GRAFFIX is activated in graphics mode, a prompt for a file
name appears at the top of the screen.  The cursor is invisible
in graphics modes, but you can enter a file name as you would
in text mode, and backspace to delete characters you may want
to change.  If no file name is entered before you press RETURN,
GRAFFIX defaults to the file name SCREEN.GIF or SCREEN.PCX,
depending on the format selected, and writes the file to the
current drive and directory.  You may enter the file name with
a drive and directory prefix, such as d:\dir\filename, where d
represents any drive letter and dir any directory or subdirectory
name.  The prompt will accept more than one directory in the pre-
fix, such as d:\dir\subdir\filename, for a total of up to 23
characters.

No file name prompt appears in 24-bit color modes, as some adap-
ter cards do not support text output in these modes.  Instead,
the filename defaults to 24BITxxx.PCX in the current directory,
where xxx represents the number in the sequence of files saved.
The GIF format does not support 24-bit color.

The time GRAFFIX takes to capture a graphics screen and save it
to disk depends on the speed of your computer, the file format
chosen, and the graphics mode.  A GIF file takes longer to create
than a PCX file, because the compression algorithm is more com-
plex, resulting in a file that is more compact.  The higher the
resolution of the graphics mode, the longer it will take to cre-
ate the file, because of the greater number of pixels that must
be encoded.

When the screen capture is completed, GRAFFIX will signal you
with a beep.  During a SVGA screen capture, GRAFFIX will generate
a series of ascending tones; each tone indicates that the video
card has switched to a new page of memory.  This is to reassure
you that the program is indeed processing data, and not hung up
in an endless loop.


RUNNING DGFX.EXE AND WGFX.EXE

Since DGFX.EXE is a TSR, it must be launched from the DOS prompt
BEFORE opening Microsoft Windows.  It cannot be properly in-
stalled in memory from a DOS "shell" activated by clicking a DOS
icon in Windows, nor can it be run from the Windows "Run File"
menu.  However, once DGFX.EXE has been installed as a memory-
resident program, it can be activated from within a DOS program
that was launched from DOS, from Windows, or from a DOS shell in
Windows.  GRAFFIX for DOS is activated by pressing the "hot-key"
combination Ctrl-Alt-Space.  This is the way to save a full-
screen graphic image that is not framed by a window.

WGFX.EXE is run the same way as any other Windows program, either
from the "Run File" menu or by clicking on its icon, having first
installed it in a program group window.  The Windows documenta-
tion explains how to add a DOS or Windows program to a group.
In popup mode, WGFX.EXE will only pop up in Windows, not in DOS
or in DOS programs running in Windows.


GRAFFIX for Windows and DOS, Version 3.2, Shareware Edition
Copyright 1993, 1994 ANDROMEDA SOFTWARE.   All rights reserved.

To order the Professional Edition of GRAFFIX for Windows and
DOS, send $39 to:

ANDROMEDA SOFTWARE
125 North Prospect St.
Washington NJ 07882

NJ residents please include sales tax.

Comments, questions, or suggestions about GRAFFIX can
be addressed to Steven A. Brown, the author of GRAFFIX,
on CompuServe at [73140,3340].
INTERNET: [e-mail]


                   DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

THIS SOFTWARE IS SOLD "AS IS," WITHOUT WARRANTY AS TO PERFORMANCE
OF MERCHANTABILITY OR ANY OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR
IMPLIED.  BECAUSE OF THE VARIOUS HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ENVIRON-
MENTS INTO WHICH THIS PROGRAM MAY BE PUT, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED.  GOOD DATA PROCESSING PRO-
CEDURE DICTATES THAT ANY PROGRAM BE THOROUGHLY TESTED WITH NON-
CRITICAL DATA BEFORE RELYING ON IT.  THE USER MUST ASSUME THE
ENTIRE RISK OF USING THE PROGRAM.  ANY LIABILITY OF THE SELLER
WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF
PURCHASE PRICE.